Quite a few electronic appliances such as liquid crystal displays need a flexible printed circuit to connect a variety of electronic circuits together.
Referring to FIG. 11, a typical flexible printed circuit 10 includes a main body 11, a first connection body 12, and a second connection body 13. The main body 11 has a generally rectangular structure. The first and second connection bodies 12, 13 are respectively connected to two adjacent edges of the main body 11. The main body 11 as well as the first connection body 12 and the second connection body 13 is comprised of a metal wire layer 15 having a plurality of conductive metal wires, and an insulation layer 16 formed on the metal wire layer 15. The first and second connection bodies 12, 13 are electrically connected to the main body 11 through the metal wires.
A portion of the metal wire layer 15 located at the free end of the first connection body 12 is exposed, thus the metal wires can be connected with a mating connector (not shown) of an electrical circuit of an associated electronic component. A free end of the second connecting portion 13 is similar to the free end of the first connecting portion 12. However, a layout design of metal wires is different. The first connection body 12 is connected to an electrical circuit having a first joint interface. The second connection body 13 is connected to another electrical circuit having a second joint interface. If the first joint interface is wider than the second joint interface, a width of the end portion of the first connection body 12 is correspondingly wider than a width of the end portion of the second connection body 13, and vice versa. That is, the layout design of the first and second connection bodies 12, 13 is with the aim of making the width of the end portions of the first and second connection bodies 12, 13 equal to the width of electrical circuits corresponding to the first and second connection bodies 12, 13.
However, the first and second connection bodies 12, 13 of the flexible printed circuit 10 can only connect with specified electrical circuits respectively. When the flexible printed circuit 10 needs an improvement, or the specified connectors are changed to different ones (e.g. according to new user requirements), the flexible printed circuit needs be replaced with a new flexible printed circuit 10. Thus the production cost of an electronic appliance employing the flexible printed circuit 10 is increased, and the manufacturing of the electronic appliance may be delayed.
What is needed, therefore, is a flexible printed circuit that can overcome the above-described deficiencies.